It’s no secret that Arnold Schwarzenegger is keen on returning to the role of Conan the Barbarian, having shown an interest in an Old Man Conan story as recently as February this year. Nothing really came of that, unfortunately, but apparently, Schwarzenegger met with the 1982 Conan the Barbarian movie director John Milius at Silicon Valley Comic-Con the other week, where they discussed the latter’s King Conan screenplay.
A third film in the Conan franchise, discounting his appearance in Red Sonja and the Jason Momoa reboot, has been around since the 1980s, and a King Conan script since the early 2000s. However, Schwarzenegger was unable to commit to it due to his political career. Posting a photo of himself on Instagram with Milius at the Con though, the actor admitted:
“Yes, I talked to him about his King Conan script”
The script apparently features a 70-year-old Conan as a ruler, making it ideal for the 72-year-old Schwarzenegger, who likely wouldn’t have to be digitally de-aged as he’s been in recent Terminator roles. Rights issues seem to have been the problem holding back serious talks of King Conan, which has also informed the previously in-development The Legend of Conan, as well as Conan the Conqueror. Furthermore, we almost saw a Conan spinoff series from Amazon, which unfortunately also went the way of planned sequels.
To date, the only standalone movie outing we’ve had for Conan since 1984’s Conan the Destroyer was the 2011 reboot from Lionsgate, which was enough of a flop to call time on a new run of films. Of course, Conan the character has been far from missing in pop culture, having starred in multiple animated series, a live-action television show, as well as two ongoing comics title from Marvel.
While waiting for more Conan news, we’ll be able to see Arnie return (again) to his most iconic character when he appears in Terminator: Dark Fate, which will hit theaters on November 1st, 2019. Here’s hoping that the latest entry in that series can provide a box office return to push a new Conan the Barbarian movie closer to reality.
